Nordic Forest Energy Solutions in the Republic of Karelia

Abstract

Abstract:The situation in Karelia, a region in Northwest Russia, is analyzed in the context of forest energy. The annual potential energy available from wood harvesting is about 7 tera watt hours (TWh) (3.6 million m 3 ), which is equal to the total need of Karelia in energy for municipal heating. We point out that the contribution to the municipal economy, the moderate heating cost, the enhanced energy security in the cold Russian climate, the environmental friendliness, the better access to the forests and the utilization of the proven Nordic forest energy solutions (NFES) might have important consequences for strategy-making processes in forest energy development. For this purpose, connecting Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with SWOT (internal strengths (S) or weaknesses (W) and external opportunities (O) or threats (T)) analysis is proposed to identify local operational strategies and assign priorities. Major threats include lack of government support, an insufficient road network, the dominance of extensive forest management, gasification and financial indiscipline. Analysis indicates that NFES are viewed positively for the Russian conditions. The forest biomass market has virtually unlimited opportunities for growth. Together, with the transition to intensive forest management, favorable policy in terms of forestry development programs can support bioenergy development. The advantageous location of existing power plants next to forests, increasing fossil fuel prices, the improvement of the road network and the availability of new technology are seen as potential opportunities for NFES. However, the results also indicate that there is substantial OPEN ACCESSForests 2013, 4 946 uncertainty and skepticism concerning how such markets benefit forest leaseholders who would like to adopt forest energy. The lack of bioenergy technology development, high transportation cost, low awareness of NFES, high demands for roads, the requirement for skilled specialists and wood fuel quality are the main weaknesses regarding the transfer of NFES to Karelia.

Effects of Intentional Reduction in Moisture Content of Forest Wood Chips during Transport on Truckload Price

“…Biomass is the most important source of renewable energy (RES) (Gerasimov et al 2013), accounting for 10.3% of the world's energy production according to the International Energy Agency (IEA 2017). In addition, biomass-based energy production promotes the energy independence of European Union (EU) countries.…”

Rural Territories Development Through the Goverment Support of Bioenergy

“…At the same time, this approach has been actively investigated world-wide, many scientists resuming about effectiveness of bioenergy based on wood chips in rural areas. In Europe, the issue of forest biomass sustainable utilization, especially wood chips, for energy is investigated by many scientists (Sikkema and Fiorese, 2014; Busch and Thiele, 2015;González et al, 2015). The experience of bringing a low carbon energy supply for rural areas into practice in Germany is investigated by T. Jenssen, A. König and L. Eltrop (Jenssen et al, 2014).…”

“…Subsidizing alternative sources of energy has an important environmental impact of stimulating replacement of non-renewable resources and thus promoting low-carbon transfer. (Gu et al, 2018;Li and Sun, 2018). Extending green supply chain management activities to manufacturing small and medium enterprises in a developing economy have lately been thoroughly researched both in Russian and abroad (Mafini and Loury-Okoumba, 2018;Mingaleva et al, 2017), the research being extremely important for the development of mono-oriented economies and non-industrial remote areas.…”

“…The main resource for development in remote forested areas is forest (wood). The efficient consumption of wood in timber industry, economic accessibility of forest resources and the methods of evaluation of economic availability of forest resources are deeply considered in a majority of modern scientific research (Tretyakov, 2015;Fedorenchik and Lednicky, 2010;Gerasimov et al, 2013).…”

Renewable energy in Russia: The take off in solid bioenergy?

“…A broad network of authorities, universities, energy institutes, municipalities, and energy companies was created with experiences in knowledge and best practices collaboration. Likewise, Denmark, Finland and Norway built cross-border networks on modernization of the energy system, energy efficiency and renewables [69][70][71][72][73]. More recently cooperation agreements in energy efficiency and renewable energy were signed between Russian agencies and some European states (Netherlands, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Slovakia, Ireland and Iceland).…”